Improved wrought-iron railroad-chair



2 sheetssheet 1.

E. SVRENWIOK. WROUGHT IRON RAILROAD GHAIR.

Patented Oct. 22, 1850.

2 Shets-Sheet 2. E. S RENW-IGK. WROUGHT' IRON RAILROAD UHAIR.

No. 7,734. Patented 001;..22', 1850'.

UNITED. STATES PATENT- OFFI E.

EDWARD s. RENW'ICK, OFIWASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

IMPROVED WROUGHT-IRON RAILROAD-CHAIR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1,734, dated October 22, 1850.

To all zohom it may concern: V Be it known that I, EDWARD S. 'RENWICK, of the city of "Washington, in the District of Columbia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Wrought Iron -Railroad-' Chairs of which'the foiiowiifgis a full, clear, and exact description, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, and in which- Figures 1, 2,3, 4, and 5 represent various forms of wrought-iron railroad-chairs manufactured by my method, and Figs. 6, 7., 8, 9, and 10 represent fragments of the barsof which they are formed. Figs. 11 and 12- represent various views of a punch, and Figs.

' 13, 14, and 15 represent the dies in perspective and in'. section by which the chairs may be made.

\Xrought-iron railmadmhairs have heretofore been manufactured by forming-the lips of the chair, or those portions which project above the bottom'of the rail and embrace its lower flange, out of those portions of the plate which extend outside of the portion of the chair on which thebottom of the rail rests.

'In order to form chairs by this method, it is essential that the edges of the tongues, or those portions. of the plate which are to for n the lips, should be first out free from the rest of the plate, and that the tongues should-then be bent over a form or mandrel of the shape of the rail which the chairs are made to's'up port. This-method of fc-riningwrought chairs by consecutirecntting and bending is objectionagble in many respects-first, because vthe two operations cannot be effected by. di-

rict-acting dies or punches, for after the edges of the tongues are cut loose the latter must be bent over the sides of a mandrel; second,

because the chair, after it is formed upon themandrel, mustbe drawn endwise therefrom in the same, manner that would be necessary to remove it from a rail, and although very I ingenious devices have been invented to fa-' cilitate the withdrawal of the chair from the mandrel, yet the chair-machines-are necessarily of a more complicated construction than would be'necessary if this operation could be dispensed with; Another objection that may. be urged against this method of forming wrought-iron chairs arises from the fact that the tongues of iron which are turned up totorm the libs must be bent at so sharp a an angle. that the fibers of the iron at the outer side of the bend; are frequently ruptured, and the chair is thus rendered defective.

The object of "my inwntion is tofobviate f these. defects; and it consists of a' railroad chair formed from a plate of wrought iron by simply punching tongues'from that portion of the plate on which the rail is usually supported into the proper shape. to constitute the lips of the chair; or, to contrast my phair with those heretofore in use, it maybe vstated that in them the edges of the toiigues which form the lips are first cut free andthe'tong'ues are then bent frontwithout inward toward the middleof the plat-awhile in my chair the tongn es are punched from within outward toward the edges of the plate. In order to effect this result, l-take a flat bar of ,iron of a width equal totthat, of the intended chair as it'comes hot from the rolling-milhandt present' it.endwise to a pair'of dieswhose faces, are the counterparts of 'the upper andlowr; facesnflhe finished chair. on of these dies} is fixed, while the other is made by Tson'ie suitable mechanical device to move from-and.

toward'the'fixed one and is furnishetL-at one end witha knife. Whenthe two are'nearest to each. other, the space includ'd"between their faces should be of thesize and shape of ahotjinished chair, The bar is introduced endwisfebetwehn the dies, and as'the one is fereed toward-the othera'jpiece ef'th'e' bar I equal in'size with the chair to bejformed is severed from it by the knife, and as the moving die advances the projections on its face,

acting upon the severed plate, punch tongue-- like portions from its middle into the sockets 4 of the other die, which tongues, when thus I punched into shape, are of theproper size to l constitute'the lips of the chair, As soon as the dies have attaiuedtheir nearest position the movable one is withdrawn from thefixed one, the finishedchair is removed, and the g .-bar-' is again thrust" between the dies, which severs from it"s-second plate and forms itinto asecond chair in thevsame manneras the first. Thetoperation continued untilthe barisused up, whens fresh one is presented to'the machine.

The machine which I have devised forformin g railroad-chairs by this method is represented at Figs. 11 and 12, andconsists'ofa strong frame of iron and of other portions fwhich V and toward the fixed die.

' establishment'is imparted by a belt.

end of the punch-die B is fitted with a knife secured thereto. The latter consist mainly "of a die A, (represented in perspective at Fig.

14,) the counterpart'of the upper face of the chair to be made, of a die- B, the counterpart of the lower'face of the chair, and of the mach nery'by which the latter die is drawn from and forced toward the former. The socketdieA is secured to a projectionO on the frame D and the punch-die B is made fast to a slide E, which is moved in guides a a from In order to produce this movement, the slide is slotted transversely to receive a brassbox, to which an eccentric journal is fitted. The journal projects from the front extremity ofa shaft F,

which turns in brasses in the sides of the main frame. This shaft is fitted with a cogwheel G, whose teeth engage with those of a pinion on a drivingshaft K. The latter shaftcarries a fly-wheel L, and is also fitted with a loose M and' a fast belt-pulley N, to

which the power of the prime'mover of the One socket-die the spike-holes will be punched simultaneously with the formation of the lips. A feed-bed P is placed opposite that end of the dies at which the bar of iron is to be entered, and a fence cl is erected upon it to guide the bar as it is shoved endwise between the'die's. I

\Vhen themachine is in operation, the slide E, with the punch-die 13 attached to it, is moved by the rotation of the eccentric journal of the shaft F toward and from the fixed die. If then a bar of iron of the proper width ahd thickness be .introduced between the two, a piece .equal in len th with the distance between the gage c and the edge of the knife b will be severed from it, and as the moving die continues to approach the stationary one the punches g g on the former, acting upon those portions of the plate which lie over the sockets hJz. in the stationary die,

sever them-at one end and at both sides from .ets in the stationary die A, as represented in section at Fig. 13. These plugs extend through the support 0 of the fixed die and abut at their hinder ends against a projec tion It on the frame, by which theyare prevented from moving during the action I, the punches of the moving die. Their hinder extremities are connected with the outer arm of a leverl, which is piv'otcd to the frame" and whose inner arm is acted upon by a cam or tappet m, secured to one of the arms of the wheel G on the eccentric-shaft F. The inner arm of the leyer is also acted upon by a spring n, whose tendency is to, keep the sliding plugs j j in contact with the projecting 1:, against, which they abut.

The tappet m is set in such a positiontnat when the moving die leaves the stationary one the cam strikes the inner arm of the le ver. The lever, actingupon the slidingphcgs, forces them to more in their sockets and to push the chair before them, thus expelling it from the die, when it drops to the floor or into any receptacle provided for the purpose. As soon as this is effected the tappet, moving on, passes the lever and allows the spriL' n todraw the sliding plugs back in t sockets. ing another chair. In order to prevent the plate severed by the knife I) from dropping, a stationary'rest r is adapted to the machine, on which the plate is supported edgewise un til; it is formed into a chair and is expelled from the machine by .the action of the sliding plugs.

The dies represented as attached to the machine are the proper ones for forming the chair represented at Fig. 1. Chairs of other forms, as represented by Figs. 2, 3,4, and 5, may be formed by. thesame machine andin the same manner by removing the set of dies attached to the machine and replacing them by another pair of the form suited to the chair required to be made. The projecting portions g g of the moving die wear faster than the-other parts, and as their edges act as.

knives it is essential that some provision should be made .for sharpening them. This is effected by making these of detached pieces, which are inserted in sockets, as represented in section at Fig. 13, by which method of construction they can be removed and ground up. As "they wear 01f at their faces packing 0 0 is inserted behind them to compensate for the wear.

Gases may arise where it may beadvisable to form the lips with great precision; In such cases I propose to move the projecting pieces g in their sockets by suitable machinery, by

means of which they can be withdrawn within the face of the punch-die until the latter has gripped the severed plate between it and the face of the socket-die. The projectingpieces y will thenbe forced forward and,acti-ng upon the portions of the plate with which they come in contact, will punch the tongues into the sockets of the sOcket die with great precision.

In forming chairs by the method herein set forth slight fins may be produced upon the The machine is then ready for for-..-

edges out by the punches. These should be removed by-filing before the chair gets cold. This operation is easily effected by supporting the chair in ablock such as that represented at Fig. 16, on which it is prevented from slipping by pins which pass through the spike-holes in the chair.

In order to exemplify more clearly theprinciple of my invention and that which I wish to secure by Letters Patent, I have represented in the accompanying drawings five forms of chairs, all of which are formed by the method herein set forth. Thus Fig. 6 represents a fragment of the fiat bar from which a chair of the form represented at Fig. 1 is formed. The dotted lines q q in the former figure represent the cuts made by the entrance of the punches of one die into th'esockets in the other die. It will be perceived that the portions .9 s of the plate which are formed into the lipss sof Fig. l-are tongues punched Erom that part of the plate which would otherwise be covered by the rail when in use. Fig. 2 represents a finished chair in which the lips s s are formed at the edges of the chair instead of at its middle. In this example it will be perceived that the portionss s of which the lips are made (see Fig. 7) are also formed from the portions of the plate which would otherwise be covered by the rail. In the chair 0 represented at Fig. 3 the lips are punched long enough to extend above the lower flange of the rail, and the dotted lines q q of Fig. 8 show the lines at which the bar is severed by the punching. In the chair represented at Fig. 4 one of the lips is suificiently large to admit a wooden wedge t, Fig. 4:, to secure the rail. In chairs of this form the larger lip 8' may be made slightly oblique to the rail. in order to conform to the taper 0f the wedge. Cases may arise in which the lips must be portion of the plate equal in width with the bottom of the rail into two portions. In such cases the chair may be constructed with two 'or more lips which are not opposite each other, as at Fig. 5, where the portions of which shownbythe dotted lines q q of Fig. 10.

The above specimens are but a few of the many forms of chairs which could be shown, but they are sufficient to show to how great an extent this method of forming wroughtiron chairs can be carried, and to enable engineers to produce chairs of other forms. In all of these cases it will be perceived th t the chair can be formed by one motion of a .ircctacting die or punch and without the use of mandrels or bending-levers. It will also beperceived by reference to Figl 13 that that part of the lips'which adjoins the plain part of the chair may be an easy curve, thus avoiding all danger of breaking or straining the iron of which the lip is formed. It will also be perceived that by making the lips of chairs of this description with a gentle curve the lip may be made slightly elastic, which may prove a great advantage in allowing the rail EDWARD S. RENWICK.

Witnesses:

CLEM. S. STULL, S. W. W001).

longer than "could be formed by dividinga the lips are formed lap past each other, as.

to yield slightly as the cars are running over it. 

